Star Trek: 25 Greatest Next Generation Episodes
1. The Best of Both Worlds, Parts 1 & 2
Probably the greatest episode in the entire Star Trek franchise, and ranked by TV Guide as one of the top 100 television episodes of all time, the Borg ship encountered by the Enterprise a year prior in Q Who finally enters Federation space, months ahead of their estimated arrival.
Destroying a Federation colony and several starships, the Borg make it perfectly clear that their presence is a deliberate act of war. After a game of cat and mouse with the Enterprise, the Borg manage to board the bridge and kidnap Captain Picard before heading for their primary target: Sector 001. Earth.
As Geordi and Wesley construct a super weapon to destroy them before they reach Earth, an away team is sent to the Borg ship to retrieve the captive Captain, only to find that he has not only been assimilated, but he is also their captain. Left with no other choice, when the away team returns Riker is forced to open fire on the Borg ship with Picard still aboard, and thus began the longest summer of Trekkies' lives.
Flash forward three months and the weapon fails; Picard's memories had been probed, thus preparing the Borg for the adequate defense against the super weapon. The Borg ship reaches Earth, but not before literally obliterating the entire Starfleet when they mount an offensive at Wolf 359.
Worf and Data manage to board the Borg ship and retrieve the Captain, and while the Enterprise takes heavy damage in a firefight above Earth, Data uses the Captain's connection to the hive to implant a self-destruct sequence in the Borg ship, thus destroying the Borg ship and severing the Captain from the collective.
It is truly one of the greatest episodes in television history that loses nothing no matter how many times you watch it.
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